Clifford Warren Ashley (New Bedford, 1881 - 1947)

Clifford Warren Ashley was an American artist, author, sailor, and knot expert.

He attended the Eric Pape Art School in Boston and with friends N.C. Wyeth and Henry J. Peck, studied further under George Noyes, eventually becoming a student of Howard Pyle, in Delaware.

In 1904, the artist was commissioned by Harper's Monthly Magazine to write and illustrate an article on whaling. In fulfilling the commission, he set sail aboard the bark, Sunbeam for six weeks. During the voyage Ashley witnessed the hunt and killing of three whales. He authored The Yankee Whaler (1926) and The Whale-Ships of New Bedford (1929). He also wrote The Ashley Book of Knots (1944), an encyclopedic reference manual with directions for and illustrations of thousands of knots.